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Photos: IBM Australia celebrates Big Blue's centenary

The last six managing directors of IBM Australia reflect on Big Blue history.

on Jun 16 2011 2:42PM

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Today marks 100 years since the founding of Big Blue. IBM Australia invited the company's last five leaders and current managing director to a lunch in Sydney to discuss how the company has evolved.

IBM is the world's second most profitable company, surviving the second half of the industrial age, a great depression, and 14 recessions. It hit US$100 billion in annual revenues in its centennial year.

Brian Finn (far left) was managing director of IBM Australia between 1980 and 1993, when IBM Australia "was the most highly regarded company in Australia", he claims. During this time, the banking and insurance industry was de-regulated and IBM was elected by the "six pillars" (four largest banks and two insurers) as the "pre-eminent supplier of technology equipment". The company doubled its revenues and survived a "near death experience" during a recession in the early nineties. "These were very serious times," Finn said. "It made the GFC look like a blip. We had to transform." Close to one-third of the company's employees took redundancies. The company "has been able to adapt and change and hold it's head high", he said.

Current David Jones chairman Bob Savage was managing director of IBM Australia between 1996 and 1999. During this period, the company reinvested in services via a deal with Lend Lease and Telstra. It went from being primarily a "supplier of hardware and software" to being a services company "embedded in the client." Revenues grew from $2 billion to $3 billion in three years. This led to deals with large Government agencies and corporations and "radical changes in the thinking of our people", he said.

Current Telstra chief executive David Thodey took time out of his negotiations with the Federal Government and NBN Co to join the panel. Thodey was managing director for one year between 1999 and 2000 after 22 years at IBM Australia. Thodey said the culture of the company has remained with him - values around "respect for the individual", a "commitment to excellence", and being "customer-centric". "That's very relevant to Telstra right now," he said. "The business is about creating shareholder value, but there are other things that motivate people." The one thing he didn't learn? "What it didn't prepare me for was working with Government," he mused.

Earlier in his career, Thodey was apparently Savaged over whether he hit his numbers.

Phil Bullock managed IBM Australia between 2001 and 2005. He was there when the company chose to sell its PC business to Lenovo, exited the low-end storage business and purchased the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers. This gave IBM Australia "access to a new market we didn't play in before", he said, making it "a more complex business" rather than a provider of "commoditised, marginally profitable" products.

Glen Boreham managed IBM Australia from 2006 to 2010. During this time IBM's marketing mantra was 'Smarter Planet'. Boreham said the company's message made technology "a secondary issue" - instead they could feel good about talking about real issues and how technology could change the world. He felt his biggest achievement was the opening of an IBM R&D lab in Melbourne last year.

Andrew Stevens said the relationship IBM has with clients today is broader in scope than a "transactional relationship with a customer". It is a "new level of impact and sophistication". Stevens said business analytics and data storage represented value for IBM's future. He said the company's $6.5 billion R&D budget - working on developments like "systems on a chip" should steer the company through the tough times ahead.

Today marks 100 years since the founding of Big Blue. IBM Australia invited the company's last five leaders and current managing director to a lunch in Sydney to discuss how the company has evolved.

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